People typically eat food in a variety of different ways. Spoons, forks, and dinner plates are traditional tools used for eating food. Feeding oneself with hand to mouth is another method that was once the original way before eating utensils were developed. This method became popular again as “fast food” concepts grew. People would use their hands to pick up sandwiches such as hamburgers in a bun, hotdogs in a bun, and longer sandwiches called hoagies which are on a bun, also sandwiches called a “wrap” where a food filling rolled up in a soft tortilla shell became popular. The food of the sandwich style variety is often packaged for carry out of the restaurant. The current packaging seems to work fairly well to take the food out of the restaurant without spilling it. Many types of packaging for sandwich type products do not transition well to actually holding the food while being able to eat it without spilling it, or preventing it from having juices dripping out, or preventing particles from falling out and onto one's clothing.
Often sandwiches are packaged in a folded paper wrapper. Drinks provided in restaurants range from waxed cardboard cups with lids to cans and bottles. Current packaging does not make it possible to eat one-handed very well without spilling, let alone holding a drink nearby enough to take a sip of drink right after taking a bite of the sandwich without setting one thing down to pick another one up. Currently, there is no packaging that allows eating of a restaurant packaged sandwich with a single hand.
Another goal not well served with the current art of food/drink utensils and packaging is also drinking while holding the food with one hand. Often eating one handed with current art in food packaging results in spilled food, and soiled clothing from food juices.
Soups, chili, spaghetti, casseroles, vegetables, and fruits do not package well for eating in a fast-food fashion. To eat these types of food usually requires a sit-down meal with eating tools in the form of plates, forks, spoons, and knives.
Utensils, such as forks, spoons and knives typically require a firm surface like a table and one hand at least to eat. If one does not have a table then they must hold the plate and use the fork or spoon to raise the food from the plate to the mouth. In some countries, chopsticks have been used to bring the food from the bowl into the mouth, and that takes two hands, one to hold the bowl and the other to push the food into the mouth with the chopstick or other implement like a spoon.
With the advent of fast food, emphasis has been on making and selling easily packaged food that is not messy, and that has been the objective held higher than food quality, nutrition and ways of serving healthier food.
Eating quality healthy food as fast food has not been very easy to obtain because it does not fit the mold of fast food. The food is often served as fast food with bread, buns, or tortilla wraps to give a person the ability to hold onto the food without having messy insides come out all over the place. Nuggets of deep fried food are now popular in the fast food industry, not because they are good for your health, but because they are easy to eat and package easily. Food is not as healthy as it could be at fast food establishments because it is not convenient to eat healthy foods like a home-cooked meal without the standard tools, forks, spoons, plates, table, etc.
There is currently no acceptable way of packaging and serving juicy, or liquid foods like soups, casseroles, lasagna, so that that they can be eaten while driving. Also if one has a disability such as inoperable hands (paralysis, severe arthritis) it may not be possible to eat with conventional utensils. Kids are more regularly eating in cars, which typically causes a large mess.
Today's society has become a busy on the move type of society that has taken up the concept of multi-tasking and integrated it into our lives as a regular occurrence of everyday activities. For example, whether it is talking and typing or working and walking on a desk treadmill, people are capable and often perform two physical functions at once.
One area that people regularly multi-task is during the consumption of food items. Some examples of where people often try to multitask while consuming food or drink are while they perform work functions and eat simultaneously due to time constraints or teenagers that are overly involved in their video game system and want a snack while they conquer the galaxy or a person that is on a road trip and needs to consume their food as safely as possible while getting to their destination. A majority of the functions people dually attempt while consuming food require a significant share of the person's attention compared to eating or drinking. Accordingly, there is a need for an efficient manner to consume food while being able to concentrate and perform another physical function.
One way people have attempted to solve the problem of having meals on the go has been the development of fast food. Fast food restaurants provide people with food items such as hamburgers and French fries, sodas in various sizes, tacos, burritos and a variety of other items that are quick to make, but not healthy to consume on a regular basis. Restaurants and shops that offer freshly made submarine sandwiches have attempted to address the health aspect of the fast food issue but items like the submarine sandwich or wraps are difficult to consume using only one hand. Further, they are generally messy even if two hands are used to hold the sandwich together due to components of the sandwich falling out (e.g. dropped pickles, lettuce, onions, etc.), crumbs from the bread falling, or dressing or sauce dripping from the sandwich. It is difficult to eat healthy and be able to multitask due to the physical necessity to use two hands to adequately maneuver the sandwich for consumption or not to have a mess from food items falling or dripping out all over. Accordingly, there is a need for an efficient manner to consume food while being able to concentrate and perform another physical function and to prevent a mess during the consumption of food and another function.
The fast food industry creates a lot of packaging waste related to food consumed in-store and take-out. There is a current need to reduce the amount of waste in this industry, while still having adequate packaging for various foods. Though it varies, the average four-person meal from a fast food restaurant generates approximately 1.5 cubic feet of un-compacted waste. Even the healthier types of food are typically served to customers and consumers in paper or plastic containers and/or wrappers that create a significant amount of refuse. Even if the person makes their meal at home and wants to eat it on the go, the food item still requires some sort of transport container or covering and the generally available and affordable materials are plastic sandwich bags or plastic wrap. The alternative is to use a reusable plastic container but these types of containers are not made to be held or practical to hold while consuming the food item while trying to simultaneously perform another task.
Currently, there is a need for an efficient manner to consume food and drinks while being able to concentrate and perform another physical function and to prevent a mess during the consumption of food while not creating a significant amount of waste or refuse.